Dillon Levenque

Vulpinus wrote: I can picture it, and I bet you are! Matches your bet and then adds several hundred Lindens. We've got this sewn up, Vulpinus, trust me.

Ha. I am in and in print even before your program started to run. Under the radar has always been my style. All your algorithms are belong me.

I still don't see how SL could be your problem. I live in the boonies and woods and have a DSL connection only. Download bandwidth 2.5 Mb on a good night, upload bandwidth oh please. Any cable hookup would beat it all hollow, I'm sure. SL has never gotten in the way. When the youngest was streaming a movie that DID add to my lag in SL, but there was never a connection loss, just a slowdown. ETA See Maddy's post. If your modem is going offline at all, ever, your first call should be to the provider. Once again I got downstream of the issue by being distracted by the ideas in the question.

I don't know anything about Time-Warner (we don't have them around here) but I'm assuming they offer bandwidth packages that compare, at least in orders of magnitude, to their competition. If that's true there's no reason SL should be such a bandwidth hog as to not allow anything else to run well. There is nothing about SL that can knock your modem offline, to the best of my knowledge. If you mean just having SL installed on your computer but not actually running (meaning your avatar is not logged in), then no.

I have no data on the issue of video memory limit, so this won't do a thing to help you find an answer. I just wanted to say that your OP and the rest of your comments were very refreshingly cohesive. You identified what appears, based on your discussion and the input of others, a very real and presumably fairly easily solvable issue, but you managed to do so without screaming in rage at the readers of the forum as if we were all employees of Linden Lab. Without screaming at all, actually. I don't believe I even heard you raise your voice. Not only that, but you actually used the phrase 'per se' appropriately, meaning you know what it means. You'd be absolutely astonished to know often it is used in entirely the wrong context (and not infrequently spelled wrong to boot). Point is, you make sense. I didn't miss how you put quotes around 'game', either. I don't recall seeing you before, but you do have 130 posts. Maybe you spend most of your time in other places than GD. I hope you stop by here more often.

I'm sure you're just modest and all, but that description really does deserve an image. That was one post where a vanity shot would have been greatly appreciated. The profile pic is helpful, but I guess I'll just have to stalk you inworld to get a good look ;-).

LlazarusLlong wrote: Given that the article is less about identity tourism than gender tourism it is hardly surprising that you found it well done, Dillon. The only SL participant appears to be one that the author probably knew about before she started writing it. Real connoisseurs of online identity issues (take a bow, Botgirl Questi) will find the analysis she offers rather one- (or should that be two-) dimensional. While the fact that questions of gender were discussed would certainly have drawn my attention to the article; it would have absolutely nothing to do with whether I thought it was 'well done'. If I was an activist (I'm not) I might even recommend such an article even had it been badly done, purely as a source of information. I wouldn't say I liked the way it was written. Identity tourism, not gender tourism? I know your various forum personae have to hold to a certain core style (and portraying someone who comes off as a "Return of Kings" idol is part of that) but surely you are aware of the concept of gender identity? Biology does differentiate—via a demonstrable chromosome difference—between males and females, but people who identify as being part of a gender they don't biologically match do exist. Rather a lot of them, in fact. There's even a Wikipedia article on gender identity: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender_identity . Given that, I'd say using gender identity as part of an article about 'identity tourism' (a phrase coined by an earlier researcher into virtual worlds and MMOs, discussed in the article) was a valid approach. Now that I've had time to finish reading all of it I realize the section about the SL avatar is only about a third of the article. The author talks about other researchers and their work for most of the rest, returning to her introductory subject avatar only briefly near the end. ps: I wrote without using a spell-checker, as always. Knock yourself out. I looked pretty carefully but I'm sure I must have missed some.

As one of the people who first expressed skeptism regarding the sincerity of this thread's OP, I want to offer a full and complete apology. The article in question is now finished; I saw a link in a forum across the street. I only had time to read the first few paragraphs; I'll get to it later in the day. What I did read was very well done. I think most of you will agree. http://motherboard.vice.com/read/avatar-irl

English is the only language I can speak or write. I know enough Spanish to be able t order from the menu in a Mexican restaurant (as should anyone who grew up in California) and I am able to read it fairly well, but there's no way I could hold up one end of a conversation. And Aethel, I took two years of Latin also (in High School—age 14 and 15). Back in the day, I could produce whole translated sections of the Aeneid that weren't embarassingly wrong, but these days I'm left with nothing but things I learned later. To Spit: spitto, spittere, achtui, splattus* * From "P.S. Wilkinson" by C.D.B. Bryan

It all works out. Turns out Satan lacks managerial skills.

CheriColette wrote: Jeez. That reads like the story of my life! Even at my mature age I keep finding things to worry about that aren't really things at all—just possible outcomes depending on how successfully I deal with this or that situation. Drives me nuts. I keep having to tell myself to stop stressing about it. Just do what you do and if things go wrong they go wrong. It's not like I'm a heart surgeon or anything. If I screw something up nobody will die. Well, technically, if I really screwed up then yes, they would. That would be really bad. Pretty much the end of life on Earth as we know it. Not to worry, though. We've got things totally under control here in our secret lab in an undisclosed location in New Mexico. Trust me: nothing could possibly go wrong.

I don't file AR's either; I was suggesting a method to help the OP relieve her anguish since she so clearly feels the need to get Linden Lab involved.

Wendy Fiertze wrote: Lets beat it to death again and keep going untill some listens. Eventually may be some one in the media may pick up on it and then they may take notice. Let's not. Or, if you feel you must go ahead and chime in on the existing thread currently going in the Role Play section. Failing that, you can try filing AR's everytime you think someone is imagining that he is pretending to bite your neck but not telling you. That should alert the Lab, pronto.

bebejee wrote: This demo outfit required AL to get the sequin effect, I didnt know such a thing existed before, the difference is just amazing, however I dont use it, havent noticed any frame rate slowdown either but its causing some issues with shoes invisiprims, need to wear alphas which I try to avoid so thats why. The trouble with the shoe invisiprims is that while your feet look fine to you, more than fifty percent of the onlookers (if this thread is at all representative of the rest of sl) think your feet are sticking through the sides of your pumps.

Madelaine McMasters wrote: it might not take much extra explanation from you to change my mind, but that would probably have to wait until you could give me a couple links to cool experiences I might offer to visitors to my house. Cool experiences? That would certainly be a change of pace.

Awesome! It'd be a great addition to a fireworks show (although naturally a thoughtful pyrotechnician would be sure to disarm the warhead first). I spent my formative years close enough to Vandenberg AFB to see missile launches; the Minuteman tests were the best. Like all the solid fuel rockets it had flame galore and smoke from the ground to first stage disconnect. I saw one launch while at a beach party not too far to the north, just after sunset. The pic on Wikipedia is almost certainly from Vandenberg, I think it's the only launch location that was on an ocean and had cliffs—that is definitely NOT Florida there.

Madelaine McMasters wrote: Pamela Galli wrote: Madelaine McMasters wrote: Dillon Levenque wrote: Maybe the way the question was asked; something in the phrasing. I've figured it out. It's not the way the question was asked, it's where the question was asked... at the top of LL's Facebook page. So, it's not that the question resonates with the silent majority, it's that the vocal minority of us here in the forum are ignorant of a much larger world. ;-). Ah yes, that was Tweeted, too. No clue how those comments wind up as forum posts tho. I don't know about Twitter, but the Facebook post asking for responses links to the OP. So that part is orchestrated. That explains the "flood" of activity from people who've never posted here before. Some of them have been in SL longer than you (2007) or me (2008). It's not that these people are allies/alts of the OP who popped up in support of something in an attempt to garner attention, it's that they saw something on a page that gets far more attention than the forums, and that page pointed them here. The forums are not on most people's radar. It doesn't bother me to discover that the world I inhabit may be inconsequential to most. That's been the case since I was born. And let this be a lesson to us, or at least me. What appears suspicious may simply be the result of our own ignorance. I find it helpful to remind myself that Hanlon's Razor, "Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity (I think "ignorance" would be a better term)." doesn't require the ignorance to be someone else's. ;-). After reading your Facebook link hypothesis and checking a few profiles, I kind of think you're right (and you know I hate when that happens). Instead of a carefully planned and arranged post blitz, it was a fairly normal response to a post in a place many times more well-read than this forum. If that's true, it actually means that the kinds of things we very occasionally see here (successful SL to RL romance, for example) may be much more widespread than we think. That the kinds of life improvements we sometimes imagine SL making possible actually ARE being made possible, possibly in great numbers. That's pretty cool, isn't it?

Madelaine McMasters wrote: Dillon Levenque wrote: Astonishing. A rather unusual OP request which, after a brief delay, gets six responses in less than an hour's time, each one of them reporting the most incredible effects, and each from someone who has almost never, or in fact never, posted here before. I'd never really been aware that so many people with such incredible stories lurked here, just hoping that someday someone would come along and ask the question they so want to answer. Edit: make that seven responses; one was in progress while I typed. Sometimes a question resonates with the silent majority? Maybe the way the question was asked; something in the phrasing. I mean, it's a subject that gets talked about all the time here and other places. Many of us (I would not be surprised to learn that in fact MOST of us) have had our real lives 'changed' because of our involvement in Second Life. Just making the social connections—meeting and melding with people we'd never have known existed if not for SL—counts as an RL change, and I know the both of us have experienced that. You were expecting it because of your previous long presence in online conversations, I was not. But I know that we both have been RL enriched because of SL experiences. Others have actually been able to find a worthwhile and important source of RL income by being able to create things that other people in SL will purchase. How's THAT for real life changing? Making a living, or perhaps a portion of a real life living, working from home in your spare time, developing on an online platform that is, if you want it to be, free of charge. That's the thing all those emails I keep getting offer, with the difference being that this one actually works if you're either knowledgeable and skilled in that field when you get here, or if you're willing to bust your ass to learn if you're not. There are a bunch of other things we've all talked about. Treasure being able to fully converse with one or a group, in the moment and on the same level, with anyone whose language she could understand. That had to be a pleasure (although I would imagine she'd had plenty of chat room experience prior so she might have gotten used to the concept before SL). Many who have not only been able to temporarily 'shrug off' physical limitations, but in at least a couple of reported cases have even found that SL somehow seems to make them able to overcome some of the physical limitations they are hitting in RL. Those stories don't surprise me too much as I have always thought that the mind has more to do with how the body feels than does the body itself (and at least on the subject of pain there's a ton of research that suggests that's exactly right; the problem is nobody has yet figured out how to throw the right switches). I should never post at night. I just go on and on and.... During working hours I just sneak in during quiet moments or on my lunch break, read and maybe throw in a couple of quick comments, and then go back down in the mine until the next opportunity. When I at my desk at home, I can just rattle. My point is we've all talked about this subject either in passing or in response to an OP many times, so I found the response to this OP unusual. I do like the current badge, but even in California there won't be any cherries until almost June. You're rushing the season, there.

Astonishing. A rather unusual OP request which, after a brief delay, gets six responses in less than an hour's time, each one of them reporting the most incredible effects, and each from someone who has almost never, or in fact never, posted here before. I'd never really been aware that so many people with such incredible stories lurked here, just hoping that someday someone would come along and ask the question they so want to answer. Edit: make that seven responses; one was in progress while I typed.

Markham Weatherwax wrote: I think you are correct in that most people who buy Security Orbs don't know how to use them and won't take the time to learn. They want to rez it, set the easiest settings, and then let it go. They don't realize how it affects others because it never affects them. Now, to keep people out of your bed (grin), you of course need lockable doors. The way to fix the TP issue is really rather simple. You clear the landing point of your property, go to your bedroom (if that is where you want to arrive at) and set it to your Home location. Then go to the outside area you want everyone else to arrive at and then set that to as landing point. You will then arrive in your bedroom when you click home and they will TP in your yard from then on. We are never going to agree with each other about Security Orbs. I don't like them, but I do see the need for them in a very specific way. I think people who use them should put up no tresspassing signs and then set their orbs to deal with "intruders" after a minute or two, giving the usually innocent party time to read the sign and depart. I also think land owners should put up fences or walls, clearly defining the boundries to their land, so people will know where to go to get off the property, and would stop them from walking into it at all. Ah well. It's life in the grid. Land owners do make the rules. To each his or her own. My orb (when it was still there) did pretty much as you suggest, short of having a sign. To trigger the orb an avatar had to actually climb into the bed and remain there for more than thirty seconds, at which point the intrusion message would display, explaining that particular spot was off-limits and must be vacated in (as I recall) 60 seconds. All one had to do was Stand to be out of the one meter range of the orb, which was centered under the bed. I do take your point about orbs in general, even though as you suggest we're not going to agree. I have heard similar sentiments from others who spend a great deal of time exploring the grid. There probably comes a point when you've been yelled at, ejected, and sent off once too often by things that had no business doing that.

Markham Weatherwax wrote: I understand completely. I dislike ban lines,but do understand them. I can put up with ban lines, but security orbs drive me nuts You can see ban lines but with orbs you can easily find yourself in the middle of a property before you get warned off with little time to respond. More than once I've hit one and have scrambled to get off the property only to hit another property that has a security orb too, and then another. Sometimes it's hard to ascertain exactly where you are - especially when flying. I explore a lot because I like to and also because I am going to write an in-world newsletter and am making new maps of SL with points of interest. I used the Ban Line Hud V4. It works well and it helps me out a lot. There are lots of public roadways and waterways through and around mainland areas, they just don't go through each and every region. I always thought there should be at the bare minimum a public access road, path, or waterway in each and every region. There cannot be public space between each and every property because that would remove the ability to join or separate properties. It's too late to fix every region now with public access areas anyway. One of the problems with ban lines is that the owner of the property never sees them, so it doesn't bother them. I think a nice solution would be to have the ban lines replaced by a generated fence for land and a buoy line system for waterways that everyone sees, including the property owner/group. That would certainly make a land owner think twice about setting that feature. If you did that most of them would then get security orbs, so not a good solution either. Perhaps there is no solution other than to have land owners manage their properties and ban only those who abuse the privilage. I think I refrained from posting to this thread back when it was first started, but since it's been (mildly) necroed I will now. It's quite possible, easy even, to use security orbs that only prevent avatars from being in places you don't want them to be. I had one such, when my house was still in place—at the moment I've got an Airstream trailer parked on the lot so I have a place to log in to while I figure out where I'm going from here—that I used to prevent avatars from using the available animations in my bed. I didn't care about people being on my land or just walking through the parcel or the house, whether I was there or not there. It just so happened that my login LM was my bedroom (upstairs and with closed blinds) and I did not want to log in and find avatars having it off in my bed. Some people don't mind about that kind of thing, I do. Sue me. Because my parcel is Linden roadside, and even more because it's relatively close to a sim border, I changed my orb (mostly due to things pointed out to me in this Forum). My original orb had a minimum radius of 10 meters, and had a quite short and not user adjustable timer; I believe it was 10 seconds which is barely enough time to read the message telling you you're intruding. I did not worry too much about that when I set it up. Reading comments here, I got the idea that if someone was coming down the road from the east at a really high rate of speed, it was possible the sim crossing heave-ho could kick them up in the air and far enough offroad to go through my bedroom and be snared by the orb. Unlikely, but possible. A creator in a thread in which this was all discussed sent me an alpha test of an orb he'd scripted. It had a fully user adjustable area radius, alarm interval, eject interval, and intruder notification message. Nifty. I set it for a one meter radius and set the alarm interval at something like thirty seconds (meaning even if a vehicle did get shot through my bedroom it would probably just keep right on going without even tripping the orb) and an eject interval that allowed plenty of time to exit the 'protected' area gracefully in cases where the alarm WAS tripped. I've seen posts in the past (and in this thread) from Pussycat Catnap who has much the same sort of arrangement with her security orbs. I think she has hers set to make her entire house off-limits and I don't really mind if someone's in my house, but the person who pays for the parcel makes the rules. In any case, she knows how to set her orbs so they are NOT a barrier to normal travel. The problem with orbs is probably that some people who use them don't know enough about how they work to: A. purchase an orb with enough user adjustment, and B. set them up properly.

Last time I looked, the FCFD did rescue drills on Fridays, so there's a better than even chance a safety net was in place. Hardly anything a firefighter likes better than root beer & popcorn, and Maddy's a sure source of those. On the other hand, that might have been the end. Snugs, I'm here for you. Anytime.

I know, you are just expressing yourself, and it will no doubt change soon. I get that. It's just that I so worry about that pie. It may never shower again.

If you really want Forum response to this question (keeping in mind that very few of us are qualified to make a definitive reply) you could probably search on the terms AMD (or Radeon) and Nvidia. You'll find more threads than you can imagine. In my reading, I've seen at least ten posts praising Nvidia's performance in SL over Radeon's as I have seen posts that say the opposite, so I've just gone with the flow and used Nvidia right from the start. I will offer one piece of real advice: if you do decide to go with Nvidia, do the research and get the best performing card you can afford. Sometimes that means not buying something from the latest and greatest series.

Bobbie Faulds wrote: Pormises, promises ;-)